ESA’s Matthew Pisani, left, and Hunter Ardizone (7) celebrate Pisani’s goal in the Falcons 5-0 win over Northlake Christian in Saturday’s Division IV state title game.

LAFAYETTE — All season long, the ESA boys soccer team has been like a huge anaconda, slowly sqeezing the life of the the oppostion on defense, then mesmerizing the opposition so much on the offensive end that foes don’t know where the goal will come from.

Saturday afternoon, it was more of the same as the Falcons held Northlake Christian to without a shot on goal and then Parrish Anderson, like he’s done all year, scored three times as ESA avenged last year’s loss ito Newman in the 2017 Division IV title game with a crushing 5-0 shutout win over NLC to win the schools first title in boys soccer since 1990.

“We are the best team in the state,” said Anderson after his hat trick performance in the title game gave him 71 goals on the season and allowed him to be named Most Outstanding Player in the title game. “I loved the game, the atmosphere, the fans, the facility. It was great.

“I never think that I’m going to get this many goals or that many goals, I just play.”

Anderson, who sat out last year’s loss to Newman in the title game due to transfer rules, was more than happy to make up for the lost opportunity with a stellar performance in the 2018 title game.

“It was painful to watch my team last year,” said the ESA junior. “I set a goal in my mind that we were going to do it for the seniors this year what we couldn’t do for the seniors last year.

“We did it, we did it.”

ESA, which beat Northlake Christian 3-1 in the regular season, just dominated the game from the outset and it didn’t take long for the Falcons to make their presence, and goals, known.

At the sixth minute mark, after missing a couple of earlier shots, Anderson got his first goal as he fired a shot that hit an NLC defender and bounced right back to the ESA junior who buried the rebound shot into the lower right part of the net for a 1-0 lead.

Sixteen minutes later, senior Alex Malek made it 2-0 with a goal off of a rebound that he buried just inside the far post.

And then right before halftime, in fact in stoppage time in the first half, senior Matthew Pisani got the ball on a break away and beat the defender and the goalie and put it in the net litterally just before the halftime whistle for a 3-0 lead.

After that, with how ESA’s defense was smathering any attack or counter-attack from Northlake Christian, it was only a matter of running out the clock in the second half for ESA to claim its first title in 28 years.

“It’s taken a lot of hard work and effort and the kids bought into how we believe the game should be played and we love working with them every day,” said ESA coach J.B. Brunet, whose team finished off the almost perfect season as the Falcons finished 22-0-1. “Parrish played well. He was sick, coming off of an injury and the fact that he scored 71 goals this season is exceptional.

“That being said, I thought the whole team played well today from front to midfield to defense to the keeper. I couldn’t be happier for them.

“It’s all about the performance for me than the winning or losing.”

Second half was more of the same for ESA as Anderson scored his second goal in the 62nd minute as he dribbled through the Northlake Christian defense and put a shot past the NLC goalie and finished it off three minutes later as he took a free kick from 21 yards out and went high and to the right of the goalie for the 5-0 lead.

“All we really try to do id put a good product on the field that people want to enjoy watching,” said Brunet. “That’s the end all goal for us.”

It was a great send off for the ESA seniors, Pisani, Hunter Ardizone, Malek, Ben Fruge, Ellis Hernandez, Adam Dakin and Story Frantzen. State runners-up as juniors and state champs in their final game roughly 20 miles from their home field.

“We just played how we’ve played all year long,” said Pisani. “We were confident, nobody was nervous and I think that we all knew that Northlake was going to come in with a very tough team.

“But I think that our ball movement and our defense was just too much for them.”

Pisani’s goal may have been the defining moment of the title game.

“It was the exact same goal I scored against Newman (in the semifinals), I beat the defender and dribbled past the goalie. It was something that we’ve worked on the whole time. It really meant a lot to me to get that goal in my final game at ESA.”